It’s hard to believe that every year more than 650,000 children die from malaria – one child every 45 seconds. It’s perhaps harder to believe that with only a low cost anti-malarial mosquito net and some basic education that number goes down to zero. Zero.

In 2010, I stepped down as senior editor of Ecorazzi to take a job as managing editor of The Domino Project – a new publishing company founded by business and marketing superstar Seth Godin and powered by Amazon.com. The goal of the company is simple: offer the world a new to think about publishing and change the way books are built, sold, and spread. Today, I’m proud to say we’ve done just that with our newest book End Malaria.

Themed around how people and businesses can create more meaningful and impactful work, End Malaria contains over 60 original essays by some of the world’s most renowned business leaders and thinkers, including Dave Ramsey, Sir Ken Robinson, Tom Peters, Keith Ferrazzi, Danielle LaPorte and many others.

With the goal of raising as much money for the cause as possible, The Domino Project has committed to donating every single dollar made from the sale of this book (after the cost of production) to Malaria No More – a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.
Early in the creative process a potential sponsor posed an important question: How will Domino link the ideas of “business” and “doing great work” with curing disease and saving lives? It was a good question and one I had not only considered but believed to be the cornerstone of our mission and strategy.

Being remarkable in business means leading with unwavering vision, caring passionately for your people, and having the courage and wisdom to know when to stand up and take action. That, in essence, is the very opportunity we’re offering with this book.

This is your chance to lead; this is your permission to care; this is your opportunity to take action.

Doing great work doesn’t end when you leave the office; it’s a commitment that manifests itself in every facet of your life. And if you ask me, there’s no greater way to execute that commitment than through the act of saving a life.

To celebrate this powerful book, we’ve declared today End Malaria Day and are working hard to raise heaps of money and awareness to help combat this global epidemic.

It’s my sincere hope that you’ll purchase a copy (or copies) of this exceptional book not because it’s full of extraordinarily important information – it is, but that’s not why I want you to buy it. My hope is that you buy this book because it’s a solid step in the right direction, because it’s the right thing to do.

With your participation, we have the potential to make a real difference in the lives of thousands of individuals and carry out our mission to help End Malaria.

Michael Parrish DuDell was the senior editor of Ecorazzi from 2007-2010, after which he assumed the role of managing editor of The Domino Project and oversaw the production of ‘End Malaria.’ He is currently the managing editor of ecomagination.com – GE’s cleantech and sustainable innovation website. When not obsessing over an editorial calendar, Michael is daydreaming exciting ways to fuse business with social action. Find him on Twitter: @notoriousMPD